


Daffodils

by Adsdragonlover



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, Burning, Din Djarin is a himbo, Force Ghosts, Good Parent Din Djarin, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Hanahaki Disease, Hanahaki throwing up, Hurt/Comfort, Leia Organa is So Done, Leia Organa is a Badass, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Luke Skywalker Whump, Luke Skywalker is a Martyr, Luke Skywalker is a Sweetheart, M/M, Minor Leia Organa/Han Solo, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Sassy Obi-Wan Kenobi, because I was too impatient to get it beta read, it was rubber duck read though, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29033208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adsdragonlover/pseuds/Adsdragonlover
Summary: So, Luke is in love.He doesn’t even attempt to pretend not to know who it is. There’s only one option. Din’s planted seeds in his heart and they’ve bloomed into his lungs. A beautiful tragedy.Luke isn’t naive enough to believe he’ll get a happy ending. He’s been doing things his own way for the most part, letting Din stay with Grogu is one of those things. But there’s a difference between healthy familial attachments and falling in love with someone you can never have.So Luke decides then and there. Din can’t know. He’ll train Grogu as best as he can for as long as he can. He’ll train them all. Chira’s doing pretty well, maybe she can take over after he’s gone.He laughs bitterly as tears drip down his cheeks.He’s going to die.And he can’t even bring himself to be angry. It’s not Din’s fault. And Luke knows he loves him too much already to ever hate him.A DinLuke Hanahaki fic
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda & Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu | Baby Yoda & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 23
Kudos: 451





	Daffodils

**Author's Note:**

> Big shoutout to Apollo for helping me. You’re the best. Thanks. 
> 
> Flower meanings/symbolism and Mando’a translation in end notes. 
> 
> TW: Vomiting, choking, blood, burning/burning flesh (doesn’t happen but is described in a force vision)
> 
> Don’t read if that triggers you, stay safe

It’s been four months since Luke started training Grogu, and three months since Din Djarin joined them. And for a while, everything was perfect. 

Grogu was learning remarkably well and Din was slowly opening up to Luke. He’d even called them friends last week. 

It had made butterflies erupt in Luke’s stomach, and brought a strange tickle to his throat.

Looking back on it now, that should’ve been Luke’s first sign. 

He looks down at his hands as dread pools in his gut. There, laying innocently in his cupped palms are flower petals. Torn up yellow petals and tiny star shaped blue flowers with yellow centers. He recognizes the star shaped ones as forget-me-nots but the yellow petals are too torn up to identify. 

Luke closes his eyes tightly to stave off the tears that are building between his eyes. When it comes down to it, he doesn’t need to know what the yellow flowers are, he doesn’t even need to know what the forget-me-nots are called. 

Their presence alone is enough to make Luke choke on a sob. 

Hanahaki. 

He’s not unfamiliar with the disease. He knows Leia had developed Hanahaki for Han before they’d gotten together, but it’d disappeared as quickly as it had appeared in her case. Their love was fast and bright, and it definitely wasn’t unrequited. Luke doesn’t know the whole story, but by the time he’d gone to Jabba’s Palace to rescue them Leia had already gotten over the disease. 

Most people weren’t as lucky as Leia, though. 

Hanahaki was a deadly disease caused by love, specifically unrequited love. It was rare, but sometimes you fall so hard that flowers grow in your lungs. You cough up flowers, flower petals and blood, and eventually it’ll suffocate you if the disease goes untreated. 

There were two ways to cure Hanahaki disease. If you confess and your feelings are returned, the flowers go away. There’s also a surgery you can undergo to get rid of them, but it gets rid of all your feelings for that person entirely. 

The Jedi developed another method through the force, a special meditation, but it works the same as the surgery. 

So, Luke is in love. 

He doesn’t even attempt to pretend not to know who it is. There’s only one option. Din’s planted seeds in his heart and they’ve bloomed into his lungs. A beautiful tragedy. 

Luke isn’t naive enough to believe he’ll get a happy ending. He’s been doing things his own way for the most part, letting Din stay with Grogu is one of those things. But there’s a difference between healthy familial attachments and falling in love with someone you can never have. 

So Luke decides then and there. Din can’t know. He’ll train Grogu as best as he can for as long as he can. He’ll train them all. Chira’s doing pretty well, maybe she can take over after he’s gone. 

He laughs bitterly as tears drip down his cheeks. 

He’s going to die. 

And he can’t even bring himself to be angry. It’s not Din’s fault. And Luke knows he loves him too much already to ever hate him. 

* * *

After a few days of coughing up petals Luke receives a visit from his old master. 

“Hanahaki you have, hmm?”

Luke spins around from his position and looks at the glowing blue ghost of Master Yoda. He nods. “I- yes, Master Yoda.”

Yoda hums, the sound disapproving. “Caught feelings for the Mandalorian, have you?”

Luke doesn’t bother asking how Yoda knows who’s causing the hanahaki. “Yes, master.”

Yoda frowns. “Dangerous, that is. Deadly, it will be.”

Luke feels a brief flash of irritation, he already _knows_ that, but it passes as quickly as it came. “I know, I’m working on focusing on my role as a Jedi Master and a teacher.”

Yoda eyes Luke warily. “Do the meditation to get rid of it, you must,” he tells Luke. 

“No,” Luke replies immediately. 

“ _No?_ ”

“Master Yoda, I can’t,” Luke tries to explain. “If I go through with it- I don’t want to lose the way I feel for him. And without any emotions for him whatsoever, who knows how it’ll affect Grogu.”

“Excuses, those are,” Yoda says, his tone coming off harsher than is probably intended. “The meditation, your only path is.”

Luke shakes his head. “I can’t, Master.”

“Attachments lead to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to the Dark Side, it does. Know this, you do.”

“That’s the old way, Master Yoda,” Luke says. “I’m running the school and the new Jedi order _my_ way.”

Yoda frowns. “Your doom, this attachment will be, yes,” he says. “Too much like your father you are.”

Luke hangs his head. “He came back in the end though.”

“True, that is. An exception this is not, however, hmm.”

“I’m not going to get rid of it, Master Yoda.” Luke tells him. “I’m going to ignore it for as long as I can and train my padawans until the end.”

Yoda hums. “Noble, that path is. A martyr, you’re making yourself out to be.”

“I know,” Luke whispers, turning away from Yoda’s glowing visage. 

Yoda hums thoughtfully. “Very well. Best of luck, I wish to you. Always with you, the force will be.”

When Luke turns back around, the old Jedi Master is gone. 

* * *

“Master Skywalker, are you alright?”

Luke jolts upright, hastily wiping the blood from his chin as he turns to Chira, his oldest padawan, a 16 year old twi’lek girl. “Yes, Chira,” he says quickly, “I’m fine.”

She narrows her eyes at him and comes closer. “You’re not alright though,” she says. “I can tell. What’s wrong?”

And the thing is- Luke hates lying, especially to his padawans. He sighs, and his shoulders slump in defeat. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with, Chira.”

Chira frowns, her lilac eyes scrunching up in displeasure. Then she tilts to the side and looks behind Luke’s back. She gasps. “Master Skywalker!”

Luke grimaces. “Chira, no,” he begins, but she’s already rushing over to him. Behind him, the sink is filled with bloodied flowers. 

She looks up at him with sad eyes. “Daffodils. And forget-me-nots.” Well, now he knows what the yellow flowers are. “Daffodils mean respect, chivalry, unrequited love, a longing for your feelings to be returned. And forget-me-nots are for true love, they say ‘don’t forget about me,’” Chira’s eyes are full of understanding. “You must really love him, Master Skywalker.”

Luke lasts maybe four seconds before a sob tears itself from his throat and he falls to his knees. Chira wraps her arms around him as he weeps. “I do,” he whispers. “I really do love him.”

He knows this isn’t right. He’s making a bad example of himself. This kind of emotion isn’t healthy for the Jedi. But Chira doesn’t say anything, she just pats his hair soothingly. “It’ll be okay, Master,” she promises. 

He wishes he could believe her. She’s still full of childlike innocence, she doesn’t know any better. “How’d you know what they meant?” He asks. 

“My parents were florists,” she says quietly. “My older sister’s flowers were forget-me-nots.” Chira tells him. “She fell in love with her best friend. He was already in love with someone else.”

The story doesn’t do much to make Luke feel better. “But I see the way the Mandalorian looks at you,” she tells him. “He watches you sometimes, when you aren’t looking.”

Luke chuckles softly, he’s not unaware of Din’s gaze. But it’s more of a protective watch than it is anything romantic. Luke only ever feels the Mandalorian’s gaze on him when he’s with Grogu. 

“You should tell him,” Chira suggests quietly. 

Luke shakes his head and pulls away, standing up and wiping at his eyes. “I can’t, Chira.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not the Jedi way.”

She frowns at him. “That sounds like a load of bantha shit.”

“ _Hey,_ ” Luke says. “Language.”

She scoffs. “But Master Skywalker, you always say that emotions are healthy. And attachments are okay.”

Luke looks away. “Usually they are,” he agrees. “But I just- he wouldn’t feel the same. And I- I’m worried it’d break me.”

Chira crosses her arms over her chest and pouts. “It just sounds like you’re scared. And if you’re that worried about it, why don’t you just get rid of it?”

Luke shakes his head. “I can’t. He means too much to me, too much to Grogu. If I do the meditation, and remove the flowers myself, I wouldn’t care about him at all anymore. I can’t do that.”

She scoffs. “I think that’s dumb.”

“Maybe it is,” Luke agrees. “Chira,” he says. “You’re my top student. You’ve already made your lightsaber, and you’re so close to being done. If I-“ he cuts off. “When I go, I need you to continue on for me.”

She stares at him in disbelief. “Master Skywalker, what? No-“

“It’s our only option, kiddo.” 

She scowls at him. “You need help, master. I’m going to call Senator Organa-Solo.”

Luke sighs in defeat as his padawan walks away. He can’t even bring himself to argue. 

* * *

Din’s gloved hand brushes Luke’s hair out of his eyes and he looks at Luke with a smile on his face, a smile that Luke can finally see without the helmet on his head. 

Luke smiles back at Din as they lay in the meadow of wildflowers, the cool breeze lightly ruffling their hair and the golden afternoon sunshine warming their skin. “I love your eyes,” Luke tells Din. 

Din flushes, tinging his cheeks a faint pinkish hue as he averts his gaze. “Not as much as I love yours,” he tells Luke. 

Luke’s face splits into a grin and he reaches for Din’s hand, suddenly gloveless, and laces their fingers together. Din squeezes their joined hands as Luke brings them up to his mouth and presses a kiss to Din’s knuckles. 

Din reaches out and lightly brushes his fingertips over Luke’s cheekbone. “You’re beautiful, _cyar’ika_ ,” he says. 

Now it’s Luke’s turn to blush as he leans into the touch on his face, Din’s hand shifting to cup his cheek fully. “I love you,” Luke whispers. 

He can’t see it, but Luke knows Din is smiling. “I love you too,” he responds quietly. 

Din tucks something behind Luke’s ear, a small blue violet flower, a morning glory. His hand trails down from Luke’s ear to his chin before he tilts Luke’s head up slightly and leans in to kiss him. 

Butterflies erupt in Luke’s stomach, and everything feels perfect. They kiss until Luke is breathless, but when he pulls away to gasp for air it doesn’t come. He inhales again but he still can’t breathe. He turns to look at Din, who looks as confused as Luke feels, and just as scared too. 

Luke tries to speak, to call Din’s name, but flowers come tumbling from his lips instead of words. They pour out of him like water over a fall, an endless stream of flowers and flower petals stained red with Luke’s blood. 

As the flowers pile up around them the worst part is what he can see of Din. His expression has morphed from one of concern to one of indifference. And then he stands up, turns around, and walks away, leaving Luke alone as the flowers pile up around him until all he can see is red, yellow and blue and eventually, nothing at all. 

Luke sits upright in bed with a gasp for air before he promptly begins coughing, hacking up flowers with an alarming amount of blood over the side of his bed and onto the floor. 

Tears prick in the corners of his eyes and begin to fall the harder he coughs and struggles for air. 

He coughs up flowers until he’s left dry heaving over his bed, tears stinging his cheeks and blood trickling heavily down his chin. He still can’t really breathe, but now it’s due to the sobs that wrack his body and the way he keeps trying to throw up nothing. 

He gasps for air as he curls up into a ball on his bed, his shoulders shaking incessantly. 

He can’t breathe, he can’t think, everything hurts and Luke is going to die, he knows it. 

Luke feels close to passing out he’s so light headed and starved for air when a wave of soothing calm washes over him suddenly. 

Luke’s body relaxes as he stops dry heaving and his sobs change to quiet whimpers. He opens his eyes blearily, though he can’t remember when he closed them, and sitting there on the other side of his bed is the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

Luke looks up and behind Obi-Wan stands his father as well, leaning against the wall in the corner of the room and looking torn between uncomfortable and sympathetic. 

“There you are, young one,” says Obi-Wan. He waves his glowing blue hand and another wave of calm passes over Luke. 

Luke can suddenly breathe normally again and he sits up in bed to look at them. “Ben, father. What brings you here?”

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow and gestures at Luke in his entirety. “Take a wild guess.”

Behind him, Anakin chuckles lightly before forcing a cough to hide his laugh. 

Luke frowns. “You’re here to talk about the hanahaki aren’t you?”

“ _Yup_ ,” Anakin says. “We were gonna talk to you later but _this?_ ” He waves in the direction of the veritable pile of blood and flowers on the floor. “This has gone too far, kid.”

Luke’s shoulders slump in defeat and he rests his head in his hands. “I know,” he whispers. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, here’s an option, and I’m _just_ putting this out there,” Anakin says. “You could always just _tell_ him.”

Luke scoffs. “Yeah, and when he rejects me I’ll be dead within days, maybe even hours. That’ll be fun for everyone.”

Obi-wan and Anakin wear matching frowns in response. “And what makes you so sure he’ll reject you?” Obi-wan asks. 

Luke shrugs. “I dunno, I just- he _would._ For one thing, I’m not a Mandalorian. So I doubt he’d be interested anyway.”

Anakin chokes on a laugh and Obi-wan shoots him a glare. “What?” Luke asks. 

“Kid, Mandalorians don’t care whether or not you’re also a Mandalorian. Just ask Obi-wan.”

Luke frowns, “What?”

Obi-wan sighs. “I was,, romantically involved with a Mandalorian,” he admits. 

Luke’s eyes go wide. “You what?”

Obi-wan grimaces. “I don’t really like talking about it. We didn’t get a happy ending.”

Luke nods. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, it was a long time ago.”

“Also, he’s the Manda’lor. And Mandalorians and Jedi are ancient enemies. A ruler of Mandalore couldn’t be seen with a Jedi.”

Anakin bursts out laughing. 

“ _Anakin,_ ” Obi-wan says disapprovingly. 

“But- oh my stars, _Satine_. Luke, kid. Obi-wan’s Mandalorian lover was _literally_ a political figure of Mandalore.”

Luke looks sharply over at Obi-wan, who looked sheepish. “He’s not wrong,” he admits. 

Luke’s head spins with disbelief. 

“Also, kid. You’re _my_ son. Of course he’d love you back.”

Luke shoots Anakin a flat look. “Wow. You’re so modest,” he says sarcastically.

Anakin shrugs. “I’m just saying, him liking you back is more likely than you think.”

“However,” Obi-wan cuts in. “You might have to accept the fact that the meditation is your only other option.”

Luke shakes his head. “I already told Master Yoda, no. I won’t get rid of my feelings.”

Obi-wan sighs in defeat. “Very well.”

“Good luck, kid,” Anakin tells him. “But, y’know, think it over, okay?”

And then they’re gone. 

And Luke is alone in the dark of his room again. 

* * *

Luke is eating dinner with his padawans as Din tells a story about how he blew up a Krayt dragon from the inside. They’ve all heard it about a dozen times, but it’s everyone’s favorite, so no one ever tires of it. 

He tells it very well, and Luke is doing his best to ignore the ache in his lungs and his heart. He’s almost to the end of the story when Luke hears the sound of a familiar ship. 

He shoots to his feet and turns to look as the Millennium Falcon lands in the center of the academy’s outdoor amphitheater. It’s not really a landing zone, but he’s too excited to pay that too much mind at the moment. 

He rushes over as the boarding ramp opens and out walks his sister and his brother in law. Luke stops in his tracks. Leia looks _pissed._

Han walks up to Luke and pats him on the back. “Good luck, buddy,” he says before he heads over to the outdoor mess hall where Ben is excitedly getting out of his seat to go hug his father. 

He hears Din’s footsteps approach from behind him as Leia storms up to him from the front. 

“Leia, I’ve missed you,” Luke says with a grin. 

His sister scowls at him. “ _Luke,_ ” she warns. 

“Is everything alright?” Din asks from behind Luke. 

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask _him_ that _?_ ” Leia bites. 

Stars, she’s not pulling any punches. 

“Luke, what’s she talking about?”

“Nothing,” Luke says quickly. “We just need to talk.”

“Yes,” Leia says, “ _you do_.”

“ _No,_ ” Luke corrects. “ _Leia_ and I need to talk.”

“I don’t know,” Leia says with a shrug. “I think the Mandalorian should join in the conversation, don’t you?”

Luke was _literally_ dying and Leia’s making it worse. 

“ _No,_ ” Luke repeated. “Din, I’m so sorry, I’ll be right back.” He says as Leia grabs him by the wrist and frog-marches him away. 

Once they’re alone Leia turns to him with a snarl. “Give me _one_ good reason why you haven’t fucking told him,” she hisses. 

Luke has reasons. _Good_ reasons. Plenty of them. But under Leia’s angry glare all his words die on his tongue. 

Leia sighs heavily. “ _You-_ “ she growls. “Agghhh, you’re _infuriating_ , Skywalker.”

Leia only calls him that when she’s _really_ pissed. This isn’t good. 

“How far along is it?” She asks him. 

“Not very far,” Luke lies. 

“ _Uh huh_ ,” Leia says, unconvinced. “Alright. Answer me this. How does his laugh make you feel?”

Luke thinks about Din’s laugh, and his face goes red and his stomach gets tight, and then he’s bent over and hacking up copious amounts of blood and flowers onto the floor. 

_Dank farrik._

“Oh my _stars_ , Luke,” Leia whispers. “You need to tell him.”

Luke shakes his head, and the movement makes him so nauseous he has to sit down. “I _can’t,_ Leia.”

“Like hell you can’t!” She shouts, suddenly angry again. 

“You are the bravest person I know, you’re sweet and you’re loving and you’re caring but you’re _fucking stupid_ if you think he doesn’t feel the same way.”

“Leia,” Luke begins. 

“ _No,_ Luke.” Leia says. “You’re going to go out there and you’re going to tell him or I will.”

A wave of desperate panic shoots through Luke. “No, _Leia,_ you _can’t._ ” He pleads as he reaches for her. 

“Why the hell not?”

“His rejection will kill me.”

“No, Luke,” Leia says. “Your certainty that he _will_ reject you is what’s killing you. You need to open your eyes and see the truth.” She shakes her head. “You’re my brother and I love you. And I’m not losing you to this.”

She turns to walk away. “I’m giving you five days, Skywalker. _Tell him_. Or I will.”

And then she’s gone, leaving Luke alone surrounded by the bloody evidence of the feelings that have been festering in his heart. 

* * *

Luke was going to tell him. Really, he was. But it’s been three days since Leia left and he still hasn’t told Din yet. 

Since Leia left Din’s been acting a little strange and it makes Luke nervous. 

But he gave Luke a really pretty white flower the other day. Luke isn’t sure where it’s from, he’s pretty positive it isn’t native to the planet. 

But it didn’t really matter, as the gift brought flowers up his lungs and he’d had to excuse himself rather quickly to cough them out. 

_Fuck_ , it was getting really bad. Even the littlest things would set him off. He did his best to hide his coughing fits and if he was with Din, which was more often than not, he’d swallow the flowers and blood to avoid coughing them out in front of Din. 

That definitely wasn’t healthy but at least the flowers weren’t poisonous. At least not that Luke is aware of. 

Sometimes it looks like Din can tell that there’s something wrong with Luke, which hurts a lot more than he’d like to admit. For several reasons. 

First of all, the fact that Luke can interpret Din’s emotions (with accuracy most of the time) through the helmet without using the force is saying a lot about how much he’s fallen for Din. And then the fact that Din’s probably aware that something’s wrong but hasn’t _asked_ Luke about it feels painfully like someone’s stabbed him in the gut and _twisted_. 

So that’s fun. 

Anyway, it’s been three days since Leia left and there have been _several_ almost confessions from Luke. 

He needs to tell him, he knows. Because the idea of Din finding out from someone else, from _Leia_ , sounds like a recipe for disaster. To be fair, this whole thing feels like a recipe for disaster to Luke, but that’s not a surprise. 

He’s laying in bed, staring at the ceiling of his little hut and resolutely _not_ thinking about Din. Which is incredibly difficult to be honest. Because his dilemma keeps running through his mind, chasing logical thought out of his brain. He’s honestly so _scared_. He doesn’t want to die. He really doesn’t. And he knows that fear doesn’t lead anywhere good. 

He’s just closed his eyes to attempt to fall asleep when his chest suddenly tightens to the point of pain and he shoots up in bed with a gasp. It’s not the pain of the flowers growing in his lungs, this feels distinctly different, and far more dangerous. It feels a little like when he’d felt Grogu calling for help through the force, except this feeling is accompanied with the certainty that something is very wrong. 

He’s getting hurriedly out of bed when pain stabs through his head and he leans against the wall with a gasp, as images flash through his head. He sees people, about half a dozen of them, clutching blasters in hand. One of them holds a blazing red lightsabers in hand. They’re approaching the academy. The tents with his padawans, his children. 

_Oh no._

He grabs his lightsaber and the comm he uses to talk with Din when he’s off world and rushes out the door towards where Din is staying. 

“ _Din,_ ” he says into the comm, frantic and worried. “Din, wake up, something’s wrong, people are-“ he gasps in pain as a new vision forces itself into his head. 

_Flames. Everywhere. The tents are all aflame, the wooden posts of the pavilion are blazing, and the flames lick at his feet. He looks down and sees little Tsum, only seven years old, gasping in pain as his robes blaze around his body, the flames scorching the child. The whole place is on fire, and the scent of burning flesh permeates the air, the feeling of death hanging heavy through the force._

Tears spring to Luke’s eyes as the vision fades and he hears Din’s voice through the comm. “-uke! Luke what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“People are coming,” he says, “The students are in danger, all of them. We need to get them to safety.” He says as he breaks into a sprint towards the nearest tent. 

“Freya wake up,” he says loudly. “We need to go, all of us.” 

“Master Skywalker?” She asks groggily. “What’s going on?”

“There isn’t time to explain, follow me, come on,” he says, helping her out of bed and out of her tent. 

He looks across and sees Din with two padawans following him and Grogu cradled in his arms as he wakes the children on the other side. 

Luke closed his eyes and reaches out to his padawans through the force connection he has with them. **Wake up** , he tells them. **Get out of your tents and come to the Mandalorian and I.**

He watches as the remaining tents open and the remaining padawans come heading over to Luke, Din leading his three as well. 

“Come on,” Luke says, ushering them to the library. It’s the only building in the school that’s large and secure enough to keep the kids safe in. 

Together he and Din herd the children inside. “Stay here,” Luke tells them. “Don’t come out no matter what you hear. It’s going to be okay, I promise,” he tells them. “I love you all.” 

And then they close and lock the door and turn back towards the rest of the academy. 

In the distance, Luke can see a thin red stripe lighting up the darkness, and his heart sinks. So the lightsaber part of his vision wasn’t wrong. 

“From what I saw,” Luke tells Din, “there are six of them. But I could be wrong.”

Din chuckles. “Three to one? I like those odds.”

Luke’s stomach gives an uncomfortable lurch at the sound of his laugh, but thankfully he doesn’t start to cough. “Yeah,” he agrees. 

Luke unclips his lightsaber from his belt and turns it on, lighting the immediate vicinity in bright green. 

He starts to walk towards where the glowing red lightsaber wielder is, but he’s stopped by Din’s hand on his shoulder. “Luke,” he says, “be careful.”

Luke nods tightly, afraid to open his mouth to speak for fear that flowers will come tumbling out. 

Then Din lets go and Luke heads off into the darkness, Din hot on his heels. 

They’re almost to where the presumed Sith Lord is when Luke feels a quick instruction to duck through the force. He reaches out and tugs Din down with him as a shot rings out right where Luke’s head had been. 

“How did you know that was there?” Din asks. 

“The force,” Luke says quickly, looking around for the shooter. 

“There,” Din says, slinging his disintegration rifle over his shoulder, aiming and shooting. 

There’s a distinct puff as the sniper who’d shot at them disintegrates. 

“Good job,” Luke says quietly. 

“Thanks.”

The attack has now officially begun, and the two of them break into a sprint towards the remaining five adversaries. 

One of them rushes back at Luke, raises their blaster and shoots. Luke raises his lightsaber with lightning speed and reflects the blast back at the mercenary. It hits him in the gut and he crumples. 

Two down, four to go. 

When Luke looks up he only sees two people left, and the Sith is not one of them. 

While they raise their blasters, Din moves faster and shoots one of them in the head, and they drop dead. Meanwhile, Luke raises his hand and pulls the other attacker into melee range and promptly slices him in half with his lightsaber. 

Luke whirls around but he doesn’t see anyone else in the darkness. He hears something snap to his left and heads in that direction, Din splitting to go the other way. 

He’s peeking around the corner of one of the tents when he hears the distinct sound of a lightsaber igniting. 

He turns around quickly as Din’s whole body is illuminated in red from the Sith standing in front of him. 

“Step aside, Mandalorian. We’re here for the Jedi and the kids. You aren’t part of the equation.”

Luke watches as Din pulls something from his belt and suddenly a new color lights up the night, as the darksaber erupts to life in Din’s grip. “I’m not going to let you hurt my family.”

Luke’s heart jumps into his throat at Din’s words, but that’s not the only thing. Suddenly, he’s bent over in half as he begins to violently hack up lungfuls of blood and flowers, his lightsaber turning off as it falls from his hands. 

Then he feels a stinging pain in his shoulder, and he cries out with what little breath he has left in pain from the blaster shot. He’s coughing too hard to lift his head to see his attacker, but he’s doomed and he knows it. 

  
He doesn’t know how much time passes, but he’s aware of the fact that he’s not dead, though he half wishes he was. He’s still coughing up flowers, though not as heavily anymore, when he feels a hand on his good shoulder. It slides down his arm to his hand as Din helps Luke up to his feet. 

Luke looks around, half to see what happened and half to avoid looking at Din. The Sith lies dead on the ground, and there’s another body laying about 6 feet in front of him. 

Luke tries to wipe the blood off his chin, but he uses the wrong hand and the movement jostles his shoulder, so he cries out in pain instead. 

“Luke,” Din says, sounding frantic. “Luke what the fuck happened?”

Luke can barely breathe, much less answer, and when Din’s gloved hands move up to cup Luke’s face he gags and spits out several more flowers and a large glob of blood onto the ground. 

“Luke what is this?” Din asks. 

“Hanahaki,” Luke manages to gasp out. 

“I don’t- I don’t know what that is, _cyar’ika_.”

Oh that’s great, Luke thinks. But he gasps in a few lungfuls of air before he starts to explain. 

“It’s- it’s a disease. Caused by unrequited love. Flowers grow in your lungs, and they’ll eventually suffocate you if it goes untreated.”

“If it goes untre-?“ Din begins, “Luke why haven’t you done anything about it?”

“ _Because,”_ Luke says weakly. “Because the only way to cure it is to have your feelings returned, or to go through a procedure that gets rid of your feelings for the person entirely.”

Din stares at him through his helmet. “Who is it?” he whispers. Luke tries to shake his head. “No, Luke _who is it?_ Just _tell_ me and we can bring them here.”

Luke feels tears build up in his eyes and he coughs out another daffodil. “It wouldn’t help,” he whispers. “They have to love me back.”

Din’s hands still haven’t left Luke’s face. “Who wouldn’t love you, Luke?” he asks quietly. 

And that’s too much. Luke flinches out of Din’s grasp and twists around to violently heave up more bloodied daffodils and forget-me-nots. Don’s hand moves to rest soothingly on Luke’s back, which only makes it worse. Tears spill down Luke’s cheeks as he gasps for air between bouts of coughing up flowers. 

“We need to call them,” Din says firmly. “I’m not letting you die over this.”

Luke chokes again, this time on a sob instead of flowers. “He doesn’t-“ he gasps, “he wouldn’t feel the same. He couldn’t.”

“Why not?” Din demands. His tone is harsh but Luke can tell it’s harsh from worry rather than anger. He hates that he can tell the difference. “Oh god- is it Han?”

That actually makes Luke laugh, but it turns into coughing rather quickly. “No,” he says. “ _Stars,_ no. It’s not Han.”

Din lets out a sigh of relief. “Luke, who is it?” he asks again, his voice sounding tight and strained. 

“It doesn’t matter, Din, it’s fine,” Luke insists. The coughing has slowed significantly at this point. Part of Luke thinks it’s his body’s way of giving him some peace before the way this conversation will go brings it all crashing down. “I’ll survive,” he mutters. 

“No, you clearly won’t.” Din says, tilting his helmet down in an attempt to catch Luke’s gaze. Luke looks away. “What- what about the procedure you mentioned to get rid of it? Why don’t you do that?” he asks, and his tone is desperate and pleading, his voice tight with emotion. 

Luke closes his eyes and shakes his head a little too hard. He feels kind of dizzy now. “No,” he says, “I’d lose all my emotions for him entirely. I can’t do that.” Luke bows his head, feeling tired and defeated and cold. “He means too much to me,” he whispers. 

“ _Luke,_ ” Din says, and his voice is rough like sandpaper. “Luke, no. You can’t- _you_ mean too much to me to-“ Din cuts off suddenly as he begins to cough violently, bending over and holding a hand over his throat. 

It sounds _really_ bad. Is he sick? “Din?” 

And then Din reaches his hands up and takes off his helmet. Luke’s eyes go wide as Din sets it aside, but the Mandalorian is still coughing. And then Din opens his mouth and bloodied white and purple flowers come out of his throat. 

Luke recognizes them. The purple ones are morning glories. He doesn’t know what the white ones are called, but he recognizes it as the same type of flower Din had given him recently. 

Before Luke’s brain can fully process what just happened Din is turning his head to look at him and cupping his cheek in one hand. “Luke, I can’t let you die,” he says, voice rough from coughing. “You mean too much to me.”

“What was that?” Luke whispers hoarsely. 

Din just stares at him, his brown eyes pleading and oh so beautiful. 

“Din, what _was_ that?” Luke repeats, feeling on the verge of hysterics. This doesn’t- he can’t- what if it means- but it _can’t_. Why-?

His rambling thoughts are brought to an abrupt halt when Din brushes his thumb over the curve of Luke’s cheekbone. “It’s proof of how much you mean to me.”

Luke feels like all the remaining air in his lungs have been abruptly stolen from him. He’s a little dizzy. “What?” he whispers. 

“Luke, I love you,” Din says, voice a quiet rasp that still manages to sound deafening in the silence of the night. Luke stares at Din, his eyes wide and disbelieving. “And I- I can’t lose you,” Din says, the pounding of Luke’s heartbeat in his ears providing the confession it’s own percussion accompaniment. “Not to this.” 

“I don’t know who he is, but I- I just _can’t,_ ” Din continues, and his eyes are rimmed with unshed tears. It reminds Luke so strongly of the first time he’d seen his face, of Din’s tearful goodbye with Grogu, who he loved. 

It dawns on Luke that this situation is much the same. 

“ _Din,_ ” Luke whispers as words finally return to him in time with fresh air beginning to refill his lungs. 

And then Din’s tears begin to fall, but the Mandalorian doesn’t acknowledge them, he just speaks through them. “Please don’t leave me, Luke. I can’t lose you. I love you.” Another breath of fresh air comes to Luke’s lungs as Din closes his eyes and brings his other hand up so he’s cupping Luke’s face in both hands. “I love you so much, _cyar’ika_.”

“I’ve lost so much, Luke. I always end up losing everyone I love and I _can’t_ -“ he cuts off to suck in a shaky breath. “Don’t make me lose you too, Luke, _please._ ” 

Luke reaches a hand up to cup Din’s cheek, and Din goes remarkably still under Luke’s touch. “Din, I love you too,” Luke whispers. 

“What?” Din’s brown eyes shoot open to look at him. 

Luke laughs breathlessly, but this time the lack of air is caused by joy and excitement. “It’s _you_ , Din,” Luke tells him. “I’m in love with you.”

They stare at each other for a long moment, soaking everything in. Luke isn’t sure who moves first, but the next thing he knows they’re kissing, hands on each other’s faces and tangled in their hair. 

The kiss is coppery from blood, salty from tears, and floral in a way that makes Luke think floral teas will forever be ruined for him, but it’s perfect. 

They kiss and kiss and kiss until they have to pull away to gasp for air, breathless, but this time of their own accord. 

They lean forward and rest their foreheads together in a mock keldabe kiss, and soon their happy laughter fills the air. 

Din pulls back first and stands to his feet, reaching a hand down to help Luke up. He puts his helmet back on and laces their fingers together. “Let’s go get the kids,” he says. 

Luke remembers how Din had called them his family, and he smiles softly. “I love you,” he tells him. 

Din squeezes Luke’s hand and Luke can hear the smile in his voice when he says “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> It wasn’t actually a Sith Lord btw, they were all bounty hunters, assassins, and generally people who hate Luke Skywalker and the Jedi. The one with the lightsaber wasn’t remotely force-sensitive, they’d just found an old inquisition lightsaber. 
> 
> Luke’s flowers:  
> Daffodils: uncertainty, chivalry, respect or unrequited love, return my affections; new beginnings  
> Forget-me-nots: true love, don’t forget about me
> 
> Din’s flowers:  
> Edelweiss: Devotion, courage  
> Morning glory: Love in vain; affection 
> 
> Cyar’ika: darling/sweetheart in Mando’a
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!! Please leave a comment I’m more craved for validation than Din is for physical touch. 
> 
> Also I might post an epilogue if y’all ask nicely.


End file.
